New homes supply and sales showed a significant improvement in the fourth quarter of 2020 (Oct–Dec) in line with the ongoing economic recovery with government’ initiatives and increased market confidence providing an added growth impetus.
The COVID-19 lockdown has accelerated technology-led homebuying in India, making it possible to inspect properties online as well as negotiate and finalize deals. Virtual site visits are now a firm reality and a large chunk of the property selection and purchase process can now be done digitally.
According to the World Bank, India ranks at 63rd among 190 countries, and the ranking is anticipated to improve further in the coming years backed by progressive government policies. Meanwhile, the real estate sector has shown remarkable resilience despite the bearish phase of the economy. Below is a lowdown of how the real estate story unfolded in 2019:
Track2Realty picks up Investment Magnet Cities of India through a comprehensive pan-India survey. The idea is to identify the top real estate destinations for the home buyers in the country.
The three southern cities collectively saw residential sales of 61,400 units between January and September 2019 as against 64,420 units sold in the first three quarters of 2018. MMR and Pune, on the contrary, saw the sale of nearly 93,930 units in 2019 against 70,740 units in the corresponding period in 2018. Altogether, the top 7 cities recorded sales of 2,02,200 units in 2019 till September, of which western cities comprised 46% overall share while southern region consisted of 30% share.
The festive season has traditionally been an active period for real estate sales as many buyers consider Navratri and Diwali an auspicious time to buy property. Like in previous years, developers this year have sweetened property deals – some up-front discounts, or more commonly 0% GST (which is in any case not charged on ready-to-move properties), waived stamp duty and registration charges, free reserved car parking, modular kitchens, etc.
Based on the concept of contemporary design led by Singaporean architecture, ‘Singa – Pune’ is a 21 acre township located at Dhanori, Pune with over 1000 apartments in phase 1. With internationally designed landscape across the project and 51 world-class amenities, the project will truly transcend the engineering and aesthetics of Singapore architecture to the city of Pune. The apartments are priced starting at 13L for Studio Apartments, 22L for 1 BHKs and 30L for 2 BHKs. The project will be completed in three phases and will progress across a span of 60 months.
A majority government at the Centre is gradually reviving private equity’s confidence in Indian real estate – especially the commercial sector. ANAROCK research indicates that PE players infused USD 580 mn into Indian real estate in the month of June, immediately after Modi 2.0 took charge.
Let’s get straight into this question, which has been a concern among all stakeholders – financial planners, property owners, investors and prospective buyers – over the last few years. And only because real estate, particularly residential, did not yield the same returns as it did during its Golden Era of the early 2000s.
Lack of affordability in the larger cities is the primary hurdle to the largest investor base, and property investors are now looking at smaller towns and cities. However, their increasing bullishness on Tier 2 & 3 cities as against their tier 1 counterparts is not just on account of their relatively more affordable property prices, but also because of their better growth prospects.